Leaving Thailand, outsourcing (again), the football finals, ... (and finding questions on the Internet)

Daniel I left Thailand fo a week or so, to meet Metti & Nina in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I was literally sick of Thailand, running a fever and having stomach problems all the way on the boat (6 hrs) and bus (8hrs) ride. Pretty annoying.

Thailand is a strange place to travel. Everything is pretty easy to arrange here, and I'd say the living standard of the people is about the same as in Italy. You see loads of brand new (this year's model) Japanese pick up trucks, and the streets are clean, and everything. You feel as if you'd be in Europe. Honestly.

(I just wounder why the US and/or European car makers missed to get into the Thai market in time. Now it's obviously too late. But it seems Toyota/Isuzu/Nissan/whatever are making huge profits here with their new and shiny car stores at every corner.)

But the downside to this is, that it makes travelling boring. I mean every idiot can travel here. (Even I can.) You get nice air-condidioned busses on every street corner, which are decorated in happy shades of blue and pink. They'd be a blast for highschools in Europe or the US. Everybody would love these psychodelic busses.

I woundered why everybody is outsourcing business to India and China, and nobody considers moving their accounting department to Thailand. (Again I have to recommend "Thomas Friedman - A Flat world". If you are interested in outsourcing and how it will affect your life, read this book. And outsourcing will affect your life a lot. Believe me.) A guy whom I met on the bus came up with some interesting factors, that might making business here a bit difficult. He looked a little bit like Jackie Chan, and that's what I am going to call hom for now. (I don't know his real name, forgot to ask.)

According to Jackie, Thai men usually stop working when they're married and live of the money their wife earns. (Reminds me about a friend's description of Vietnam.) If they work, they usually try to have easy jobs (tuk-tuk driver, or so). The wifes usually get fed up after a while, and divorce their husbands. According to Jackie, Thailand has an outstanding divorce rate in Asia.

Also, the mentality seems to be a problem. Jackie (who was Chinese and living in Malaysia) said that Thais and native Malaysians tend to spend their money without saving it for long-term goals. If they have a restaurant that is generating some profit, they tend to close it frequently for a few days to spend the money they earned. They don't save it, or plan to expand the business. (According to Jackie.)

I'm writing this from Georgetown, Penang Island, in Malaysia. Georgetown is a really nice old town (300 years, not REALLY old) with a lot of (old) Chinese shops. It looks quite nice, and they have lots of tourist infrastructure. Tonight the "football" (as they call soccer here) final is all over Penang. I hope I don't have to see it. But I guess my bad stomach will make a good excuse.

I just read the Yahoo-Answers to Stephen Hawkings asking how humankind can survive the next 100 years. Go there. read it. It's fun. It's just mad people like you and me trying to find an answer to his question. Or just writing about whatever they think is important.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ar3NJNZ3REVJvcgNh745zXbsy6IX?qid=20060704195516AAnrdOD

Enough blahblah. That's it for now.

In Penang	in einem tempel in penang	preparing for the soccer finals
das riesige haus eines der reichsten chinesen	view of downtown georgetown on penang island	making new friends over breakfast